Jew S A economy is in the crapper, big time--question is, is creepy Joe doing it on purpose or is he really that dumb?

Apollonian

Guest Columnist

BIDEN ECONOMY: Recession No Longer on the Way – IT’S HERE – US GDP Down Seven Months in a Row – October 2021 Was Last High​

STATION GOSSIP 17:04

Link: http://www.stationgossip.com/2022/07/biden-economy-recession-no-longer-on.html

The Biden economy is a nightmare. The big question is – Is Biden destroying the economy on purpose or is he that dumb that he thinks what...​


Even Google Thought Hunter Was a Joke – Ex-Google Exec Recounts Embarrassing Biden Meeting
Jaba:The Leftist's (Cartoon)

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The Biden economy is a nightmare. The big question is – Is Biden destroying the economy on purpose or is he that dumb that he thinks what he is doing is right?
We reported a month ago on the Biden economy and how a recession was near because US GDP was down six months in a row.
But last month’s GDP results from IHS Markit showed April’s GDP increasing over March but still below the last GDP high from October 2021.

GDP-from-April-IHS-Markit.jpg

Today IHS Markit released their May 2022 GDP numbers. GDP went down from April’s numbers and a month ago, IHS showed April with a significant GDP increase. That turned into a contraction and was adjusted since last month. IHS also had to write down March to reflect the government’s downward 1st Quarter of 2022 adjustment last week.
IHS says that the economy, at $19.646T in May 2022 expressed in 2012 dollars), was 1.0 percent smaller than it was in Oct. 2021 ($19.851T).
IHS Markit shares this about projected second-quarter results:
Averaged over April and May, monthly GDP was 1.4% below the first-quarter average at an annual rate. Implicit in our latest estimate of a 1.5% annualized decline of GDP in the second quarter is roughly no change in monthly GDP in June.
The US will be lucky if June is flat. With bad economic news continuing to pour in, the better bet is that June will also be negative, and that, counting from Oct. 2021, it will really be the eighth month of contraction.
US-GDP-May-22-IHS-Markit.jpg
 
FOX News cites CNN and asks if there's really a recession, what it is, whether it's fact or not. CNN just wants to cite the race of economists. So then WHAT is the reality?--and what good is CNN?

 

Biden Spox Karine Jean-Pierre Insists “We Are Stronger Economically Than We Have Been in History” (VIDEO)​

STATION GOSSIP 17:54

Link: http://www.stationgossip.com/2022/07/biden-spox-karine-jean-pierre-insists.html

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Thursday absurdly claimed the US is now “economically stronger” than we have been in his...​


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Biden Attacks Trump, Claims Republicans are Blocking His Effort to Lower Gas and Food Prices in Unhinged Ohio Speech (VIDEO)

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White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Thursday absurdly claimed the US is now “economically stronger” than we have been in history.
Inflation rates are at 40-year highs, the GDP shrank last quarter and gas prices are through the roof.
Don’t believe your lying eyes.

The Atlanta Federal Reserve announced on Friday that the second quarter of 2022 saw a GDP of minus 2.1 percent.
The GDP shrank by 1.6 percent in the first quarter of 2022.
As TGP reported previously, the US GDP is on a downturn and has been down with the last all-time high being in October of 2021. That is now more than six months ago.
Recessions are typically marked by an economy shrinking in back-to-back quarters, measured by gross domestic product.
The numbers reported by the Atlanta Fed will make the second quarter of negative growth.
We are in a recession thanks to Joe Biden and the Democrats but Jerome Powell continues to lie about the economy.
Last week Jerome Powell said the US economy is in “strong shape” during his congressional testimony.
 

Record Number Of Homebuyers Walk Away From Contracts As Builders Reel Amid Glut Of Unsold Houses​

BY TYLER DURDEN
TUESDAY, AUG 16, 2022 - 05:55 PM

Link: https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/r...s-walk-away-contracts-housing-market-implodes

Between cratering homebuilder and homerbuyer confidence...

... record low home affordability...

... a record number of new listing with price cuts (amid the collapse in demand).

... plunging housing starts...

... and so on, as the recent surge in mortgage rates has effectively pushed the housing market into a recession, which is now so widespread that 63,000 home-purchase agreements were called off in July, equal to 16% of homes that went under contract that month. According to Redfin, that's the highest percentage on record, and only the brief spike during the covid crash - which the promptly reversed - was worse. It’s up from a revised rate of 15% one month earlier and 12.5% one year earlier.

The housing market is slowing as higher mortgage rates sideline many prospective homebuyers. With competition declining, the house hunters who are still in the market are enjoying newfound bargaining power, a striking contrast from just a few months ago, when buyers often had to pull out every stop in order to win. Today’s buyers are more likely to utilize contract contingencies that allow them to back out without financial penalty if something goes wrong. And with an increasing number of homes to choose from, they’re also more likely to call a deal off if a seller refuses to bring the price down or make requested repairs—a situation that has become increasingly common given that sellers are still adjusting to the cooling market.
“Homes are sitting on the market longer now, so buyers realize they have more options and more room to negotiate. They’re asking for repairs, concessions and contingencies, and if sellers say no, they’re backing out and moving on because they’re confident they can find something better,” said Heather Kruayai, a Redfin real estate agent in Jacksonville, FL. “Buyers are also skittish because they’re afraid a potential recession could cause home prices to drop. They don’t want to end up in a situation where they purchase a home and it’s worth $200,000 less in two years, so some are opting to wait in hopes of buying when prices are lower.”
Alexis Malin, another Redfin agent in Jacksonville, warns that there’s no guarantee buyers will be able to find better deals in the future. Annual home-price growth has started to slow—to 8% today from 17% a year ago—but prices are still on the rise and Redfin economists don’t expect them to crash.
“Some buyers who are backing out of deals have this mindset that the market is crashing and they’ll be able to get a home for $100,000 less in six months. That’s not necessarily the case,” she said. “Homes in many parts of Florida are still selling for a pretty penny, so I warn my buyers that the grass might not actually be greener on the other side.”
Some buyers may also be backing out due to 5%-plus mortgage rates. Those who started their search months ago, when rates were closer to 3%, may be realizing the type of home they wanted before is now out of budget since monthly mortgage payments have soared nearly 40% year over year.
“Home-purchase cancellations may begin to taper off as sellers get used to a slower-paced market,” said Redfin Deputy Chief Economist Taylor Marr. “Sellers have already begun to lower their prices after putting their homes on the market. They’ll likely start pricing their properties lower from the get-go and become increasingly open to negotiations.”
And just to confirm how bad the US housing market is, even the morbidly slow rating agency Fitch Ratings said the likelihood of a severe downturn in US housing has increased (although since rating agencies are never allowed to rock the boat, it said that its rating case scenario provides for a more moderate pullback that includes a mid-single-digit decline in housing activity in 2023, and further pressure in 2024.) Fitch also notes that although it recently affirmed the ratings and Stable Outlooks for our US homebuilder portfolio, "ratings could face pressure under a more pronounced downturn scenario that would likely include housing activity falling roughly 30%, or more, over a multi-year period and 10% to 15% declines in home prices."
* * *
The biggest losers from the latest housing crash aren't sellers however, but rather homebuilders, who are suddenly finding themselves with a glut of unsold houses.
As Bloomberg notes, with this year’s surge in mortgage rates tossing buyers to the sidelines, the waitlists for new houses are gone and new-home sellers - such as Kevin Brown, who works just south of Houston, are on the front lines of a massive shift. While Brown used to have back-to-back appointments, buyers now just trickle in to his Saratoga Homes sales office. Meanwhile, he’s got 55 houses under construction and five that are complete, all without deals.
“There’s a bit of pressure on us,” Brown said. “Builders have got to hit goals and make their profit, and they don’t like inventory just sitting on the ground.”
An abrupt halt to the pandemic housing boom has left builders that started construction months ago scrambling to adapt. The US supply of new homes relative to sales in June was the highest since the midst of the last crash in 2010. And by early July, buyer traffic to homebuilder websites and sales offices had plunged to the lowest level for the month since 2012, according to a survey of builder sentiment from the National Association of Home Builders.
New Homes sales signs line a road near Rosharon, Texas/BBG
The new-home pile up underscores a broader shift that’s wreaking havoc in the market. A national housing shortage contributed to years of bidding wars and desperation among buyers who bid up prices to record levels for fear of missing out. But this year’s surge in borrowing costs has now pushed affordability to a breaking point and eased some of the scarcity.
At the same time, the stage is set for longer-term supply constraints as builders pull back. A decade of underbuilding and a bulging population of young people aging into homeownership threatens to prolong the affordability squeeze.
“Despite the fact that there aren’t enough housing units in the country, builders are not willing to take the gamble that’s required to build them,” said Jerry Howard, chief executive officer of the homebuilders group. “They’re afraid that, in a recessionary environment, they won’t be able to sell them.”
In June, 824,000 single-family homes were under construction in the US, more than at any time since October 2006, according to an NAHB analysis of government data. Unsold inventory has ballooned in part because of supply-chain disruptions and labor constraints that created bottlenecks in the production pipeline.
Now, with the economy entering a recession, or already in one, builders are cutting back on starts, trying to avoid having too many completed homes sitting empty. They’re also applying for fewer building permits, which for single-family homes fell in June to a two-year low, according to data from the government.
Not every market is cooling fast. But the change is stark in the pandemic boomtowns where builders piled in to meet demand for out-of-state arrivals, who often bid up prices beyond the reach of locals.
“It has become a very competitive market for builders where they are trying to offload any standing inventory,” said Ali Wolf, chief economist for Zonda, which tracks new-home production. “We may see a period where supply may actually exceed demand for a while in some of the markets that were the most feverish over the past two years.”
Boise, Idaho, is one of those areas where a pandemic bubble is bursting. Remote workers arrived from pricier states such as California, seeking open spaces and fewer virus restrictions. But now Covid restlessness is giving way to fears that the Federal Reserve’s cure for inflation — higher rates — will tip the US into a recession.
Idaho’s biggest builder, CBH Homes, has had about a third of buyers cancel contracts in the past few months, nearly twice the level at the start of the year, according to Corey Barton, the company’s president. He’s got 200 unsold finished homes, compared with 75 at the end of last year, and said he’ll probably surpass the 350 he was left with after the last crash 15 years ago. In a sense the inventory was there all along — it was just hidden, he says.
Builders had been deliberately holding back houses, waiting until they were a couple months from completion before releasing them for sale. That’s because they couldn’t build fast enough to meet sky-high demand. By waiting, they could charge the current market price as materials costs climbed.
But now, the market is getting flooded with listings, Barton said. Homes are finishing or are getting listed earlier in the construction process.
Meanwhile, CBH has cut starts by about half. Subcontractors involved in the early stages of construction, digging out basements or pouring foundations are already feeling it, he said.
“The movement from out of state caused a false market,” Barton said. “We have to accept things for the way they are. It’s going to get tough.”
Builders of new homes find themselves in an especially trick spot, because while most traditional sellers can afford to wait or even postpone a sale if conditions deteriorate, builders will have to discount until they find the market-clearing price, said Benjamin Keys, a real estate professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
“The homebuilders have an understandable incentive to pull back right now and Americans need more affordable housing,” Keys said.
At Saratoga Homes’s Glendale Lakes sales office, marketing director Christina Nuon said she’s making cold calls to agents and hosting happy hour events to boost sales. The company has a menu of incentives to bring down costs for its entry-level buyers, from $12,000 toward closing costs to a subsidized 30-year mortgage rate of just under 4%.
“Buying down rates, it’s kind of going to be our incentive probably from now on out,” Nuon said. “Just because that’s the only way we can help buyers. We can’t reduce the price any lower.”
Brown, the sales consultant, says the incentives have helped put a dent in inventory: “I am trying to find one buyer at a time,” he said, “and not get overwhelmed by what I have coming up.”
He worries that at the end of a potential recession, continued underbuilding will help keep prices elevated.
 

Major US Retailers Warn: Lower-Income Consumers Are in Trouble​

by Zero Hedge
August 26th 2022, 10:09 am

Link: https://www.infowars.com/posts/major-us-retailers-warn-lower-income-consumers-are-in-trouble/

'Low-tier' consumers are scaling back purchases as inflation bites

President Biden and his top advisers have been adamant that the consumer is exceptionally strong this summer despite the economy slumping into a technical recession.

Well, maybe in aggregate, the consumer appears healthy, but numerous retailers pointed out that less-affluent ones are tapped out.


Earlier this summer, we saw the first signs of consumer cracking as people maxed out their credit cards and depleted savings amid 16 months of tumbling real wages due to the highest inflation in forty years.

Companies from McDonald’s Corp. to Costco Wholesale Corporation to Burlington Stores, Inc. to Nordstrom, Inc. to Macy’s to Advance Auto Parts, Inc. to AT&T Inc. to even Dollar Tree, Inc. have all echoed a very alarming message that low-tier consumers are scaling back purchases as inflation bites.

In July, McDonald’s offered a grim warning about the consumer’s state: Customers traded down for less expensive menu items. Lower-tier customers ditched combo meals for value offerings.

Also, in July, Costco CEO Craig Jelinek said, overall, “the consumer isn’t doing bad,” but also mentioned, “a lot of people, right now, they’re in a recession because they’re just trying to survive by just buying gas and making house and rent payments.”

Sounds confusing, right? But it’s not. With some clarification, Jelinek said wealthier households still have “discretionary income to buy goods,” which means the lower tier consumers are perhaps tapped out.

Clothing retailer Burlington Stores this week offered even more insight into the state of the consumer. Michael O’Sullivan, the CEO, stated:


“We believe that the external factors – economic pressure on lower-to-moderate income shoppers, and very high levels of promotional activity – will continue well into the second half of the year. Accordingly, we are taking down our full-year sales and earnings outlook.”
Another retailer Nordstrom outlined the impacts on inflation between affluent and less-affluent consumers, which was also echoed by Macy’s.

Then car-repair retailer Advanced Auto Parts said that soaring fuel prices and elevated inflation led to declines in do-it-yourself demand.

Retailers are having a tough time as low-tier consumers appear exhausted. Even Dollar Tree slashed its full-year profit outlook, citing a higher cost of living and inventory woes due to economic pressure on low-tier consumers.

Remember that Walmart had already cut its profit outlook as consumers purchased less-profitable groceries.

Also from the summer was AT&T when CEO John Stankey said customers are starting to put off paying their phone bills.

And then there’s the figure of at least 20 million households — or about 1 in 6 American homes — are behind on their power bills.

Retailers warning about the souring state of less-affluent consumers is troubling, despite Biden and his senior aides reaffirming every week that everything is wonderful ahead of the midterm elections in November.
 
Here, below, is explained the rival-alternative to the present US Dollar reserve currency, the BRICS currency unit; BRICS will be backed by gold, unlike the present dollar which has been inflated into oblivion and seems to be collapsing (or in the process thereof).

 
Here's news/info on the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, S. Africa--soon to be joined by Saudis) replacing US Dollar as "reserve currency"--a common unit for payments among diff. countries

 
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